rmg david wins bronze Pencil at One Show 2004

WPP Group-agency rmg david has won a bronze Pencil at the recently concluded One Show 2004 awards, which were given away in New York last weekend. The agency struck metal for its ‘nests' hoarding for nature conservation organization WWF - an entry that incidentally also claimed a silver trophy at this year's Abby Awards. The winning entry was among the three Finalist nominations that rmg david had at this year's One Show awards. It may be recalled that a total of 21 entries from 11 Indian agencies were shortlisted for Pencils this year, but hitherto, no news has been forthcoming on the fortunes of the remaining 20 Indian entries.

The bronze Pencil for the WWF hoarding is rmg's second award at the One Show - the first being the silver Pencil it claimed for the ‘Gandhi' film for Essar in 2002 - and only the fourth instance of an Indian agency winning the coveted international award. rmg's brace aside, the only Indian agencies that have picked up Pencils so far are O&M (a silver for the ‘Second-hand smoke' ad) in 2002 and Saatchi & Saatchi India (a silver for the ‘Read this standing on one leg' poster for The Terry Fox Foundation), last year. Which essentially means that rmg david has the unique distinction of being the only Indian agency to have won two Pencils.

Small wonder the mood at the small-sized agency - which prides itself as ‘The smallest worldwide agency' - is celebratory. "All points to our guys in Delhi," says Josy Paul, country head & national creative director, rmg david. "They were the ones who came up with the idea and executed it so beautifully. I am extremely happy for them." The award-winning ad is the creation of writer-art director team Amit Nandwani and Rohit Devgun of rmg, Delhi, while Nitin Khanna shares the credit by virtue of servicing the account.

Speaking about the conception of the idea, Nandwani says, "Due to increasing deforestation, we felt a serious need to sensitize the masses about environmental issues. The need was to educate people about the harmful effects of deforestation on the environment and birds, which are fast losing their natural habitat." The campaign called for a strong message that was delivered innovatively, and given the financial constraints that non-profit organizations such as the WWF face, the focus was on low-cost innovative ambient media. The result was the skeletal billboard with bird nests nestling in the scaffolding. "The message that birds have lost their natural habitat came out loud and clear when one saw the line ‘Plant More Trees'," explains Nandwani. "The idea differentiated itself from the other billboards through its execution. The message was delivered repeatedly to people, guaranteeing registration and subsequent word-of-mouth promotion for WWF."

Paul reveals that the idea impressed him the moment he heard it. "We knew we had a winner in terms of a good communication idea… although we never thought it would get us so many accolades," he admits. "In fact, the work was never entered for this year's Clio Awards - we are a small agency, and entering awards costs money, so we have to pick and choose where to enter…" Paul, however, maintains that the ‘nests' idea was not backed because of its ‘award-worthiness'. "We don't create and judge work for awards - we do it for a living. We do work that will make us proud when we show it around. In fact, the joy of finding out a new way of doing things transcends the excitement of winning an award. And it is the joy of ideation and creation that sparks energy in the agency." He adds that a greater number of thoughts and ideas for WWF would be replicated "on a guerilla level" across Delhi in the days to come. © 2004 agencyfaqs!